Amber Heard, American actress has accused her ex-husband Johnny Depp of abusing her both physically and verbally while he was allegedly bingeing on drink and drugs.

At various times during their tempestuous relationship she feared for her life, claimed Amber, reports AP.

On the first day of her testimony Monday at Britain’s High Court in London, Heard also denied accusations she was a heavy drug-taker and drinker as well as a controlling and abusive person.

The court is examining Depp’s libel suit against The Sun newspaper over an April 2018 article that labelled him a “wife beater” for allegedly abusing Heard.

“When I felt my life was threatened, I tried to defend myself and that started to happen years into the relationship, years into the violence,” she told the court. “Before that, I didn’t even try to defend myself, I just checked out.”

Depp’s lawyer Eleanor Laws played a recording of an argument between the pair in which Depp accuses Heard of throwing pots and other items at him the night before. Heard said she had hit — but not punched — Depp and that she had only thrown things “to escape him.”

The Hollywood star, who strongly denies abusing Heard, was at the court to hear his ex-wife’s evidence. Heard’s testimony is due to last for three days.

According to the 34-year-old Heard, Depp “explicitly threatened to kill me many times, especially later in our relationship.” She said he blamed his actions on “a self-created third party” that he referred to as “the monster.”

Depp and Heard met in 2009 on the set of the film “The Rum Diary,” which was released two years later. They married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.

The 8th death anniversary of eminent Bangladeshi writer, playwright, lyricist, academician and filmmaker Humayun Ahmed is being observed today.

This time, Humayun's death anniversary is being observed by various organisations with limited programmes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several organizations are scheduled to honour the popular writer through different virtual programmes in various media platforms.

Fans and admirers are paying their tributes to the legend on their social media accounts.

Himu Paribahan, a noted fanbase group of the eminent writer, has been observing this day since 2013. Due to the COVID-19 situation this year, the group has announced nationwide three-day special arrangements, including tree plantation, special Facebook live sessions, online magazine-sketch and documentary presentations.

The organisation is known for paving their group-tribute on the writer's graveyard at Nuhash Palli every year. Due to the current situation, a two-member team is scheduled to pay floral tributes and offer fateha at the writer's graveyard at Nuhash Palli following health guidelines, according to the organisation's Facebook event plan.

Television channels will also air various programmes, highlighting the life and glorious career of the wordsmith.

Born at Kutubpur village in Mohanganj, Netrakona to Foyzur Rahman Ahmed and Ayesha Foyez on November 13, 1948, Humayun Ahmed died of colorectal cancer at the age of 63 at Bellevue Hospital, New York on July 19, 2012.

In his academic life, he passed the School Certificate (1965) from Bogura Zilla School, Intermediate from Dhaka College and earned his BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry from Dhaka University. He joined the Dhaka University as a lecturer of Chemistry and later went to North Dakota State University in the United States to pursue his PhD in Polymer Chemistry.

'Nondito Noroke' (1972) was Humayun Ahmed's debut novel, which gave him the breakthrough and propelled his career as a writer. The Ekushey Padak winner writer wrote over 200 fiction and non-fiction books, all of which were bestsellers in Bangladesh till date.

In his illustrious career, Humayun Ahmed won Bangla Academy Award, Lekhak Shibir Award, Shishu Academy Award, Michael Madhusudan Padak, Bachsas Award and more, for his outstanding contributions to the Bengali culture and entertainment sphere.

As a content-maker in television, Ahmed debuted with his drama 'Prothom Prohor' (1983) for Bangladesh Television (BTV).  His successful journey in television continued with popular drama serials 'Ei Shob Din Ratri', 'Bohubrihi', 'Ayomoy', 'Nokkhotrer Raat', 'Aaj Robibar' and most notably, 'Kothao Keu Nei' which created a historic hype in the nation - surrounding the lead character 'Baker Bhai', portrayed by veteran actor Asaduzzaman Noor.

Humayun Ahmed also explored success as a filmmaker in the early 1990s and went on to make a total of eight films in his filmmaking career, each based on his own novels. Two of his films, 'Syamol Chhaya' (2004) and 'Ghetuputra Komola' (2012) were the official Bangladeshi submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in their respective years.

He received seven Bangladesh National Film Awards in different categories for the films 'Shonkhonil Karagar' (as screenwriter), 'Aguner Poroshmoni', 'Daruchini Dwip' and 'Ghetuputra Komola'.

The iconic literateur is survived by two sons, Ninit and Nishad, with his second wife and actor-director Meher Afroze Shaon; and three daughters - Nova, Shila, Bipasha and son Nuhash Humayun with his previous wife Gultekin Ahmed.

His son Nuhash Humayun is currently working in the television industry as a content-creator.

Bangladesh Musical Bands Association (BAMBA) has announced on Saturday that in order to commercially use the songs of its associated bands, it is now required to have written permission from the association.

BAMBA announced this statement via a press release issued on their Facebook page on Saturday, stating that many artists and bands have been commercially performing and utilizing popular songs made by its 25 member bands on several broadcasting platforms, reality programmes and concerts, without any proper consent.

The organization stated that this new policy has been finalised to protect the creative rights of the bands.

The 25 member bands who have agreed on the decision are - Arbovirus, Aurthohin, Artcell, AvoidRafa, Lalon, Black, Beduin, Cryptic Fate, Dolchhut, Dreek, Feedback, LRB, Mechanix, Miles, Nemesis, Obscure, Powersurge, Pentagon, Renaissance, Shironamhin, Shunno, Souls, The Trap, Vikings and Warfaze.

BAMBA was founded in 1987, with 14 prominent bands of the country and working to resolve copyright issues to support its member bands since its beginning. It has also organized several noteworthy concerts with top names of the country’s band music scene.

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her daughter Aaradhya, who tested positive for Covid-19 earlier, have been taken to a hospital with breathing problem.

The former miss world Aishwarya and her daughter have been shifted to Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital in Mumbai on Friday as both of them have developed breathlessness, according to Indian media.

Coronavirus infected Aishwarya's husband Abhishek and father-in-law Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan have been in the same hospital since July 11.

Amitabh Bachchan, 77, tweeted on July 11 that he had tested positive and appealed to those who were in close proximity to him in the past 10 days to get themselves  tested.

His son, Abhishek Bachchan, 44, also tweeted that he also had tested positive and was in a hospital.

Later, On July 12, Abhishek on his another tweet informed that Aishwarya and Aaradhya have also tested COVID-19 positive.

  Read Also: Covid-19: Amitabh, Abhishek, Aishwarya, granddaughter Aaradhya test positive

The rest of the family including his mother Jaya Bachchan tested negative, said the tweet.

The news that the family, often described as Bollywood royalty, had been affected by the coronavirus sent shockwaves across India.

This week, thousands of fans have held prayers for the family's recovery.

On Friday India recorded a new record of 35,000 new cases of coronavirus cases in 24 hours, surpassing the one million mark.

The country now has the third-highest number of cases in the world, after the US and Brazil where the current death toll is 25,602.

Besides, the western state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located, is still the biggest hotspot with the highest case count - more than 280,000 - of all the states.

Friday marks the birthday of prominent Bangladeshi lyricist and music composer Prince Mahmud, known for his marvellous contributions in the music industry of the country.

A glorious career spanning over three decades, Prince took the industry on a new height with his remarkable collaborations with iconic Bangladeshi singers including James, Ayub Bachchu, Hasan, Khalid, Shafin Ahmed, Fahmida Nabi, Nancy and many more.

The song ‘Aj Jonmodin Tomar’, sung by Miles rockstar Shafin Ahmed, has always been a prominent Bengali song when it comes to addressing someone’s birthday. This popular Bengali 'birthday-anthem' is composed by Prince Mahmud, and many of his well-wishers took this song to greet the artist on social media, marking his birthday.

Noted lyricist and Prince’s longtime friend Asif Iqbal quoted the lyrics of ‘Aj Jonmodin Tomar’ to wish his friend on Facebook -

“To me, Prince is the ultimate unbending Prince of Bangla songs. What a timeless collection of songs he has made in his career! His songs nurtured a couple of generations, who learned to dream, to love, to weep through his magical creations.”

Addressing his love for Prince, Asif continued, “He is a great song maker, who only knows how to create good music. I love him the way he is, and it is my utmost honour that he calls me a friend. Today is the birthday of my musical maestro friend!”.

Prominent lyricist Zulfiqer Russell wrote, “He is indeed the Prince of modern Bangla songs. His fanbase includes not only the young generation but people of all ages.”

Prince started his musical journey in the 80’s as an emerging band artist. His mixed album ‘Shakti’ (1995) propelled his journey as a composer of mixed albums, which immediately garnered him massive success along with positive critical acclamations.

During the commercially successful era of the music industry during the pre and post-2000, Prince has penned and composed a plethora of songs that helped the industry to feature artists from different genres under the same roof.

His most popular tracks include ‘Aj Jonmodin Tomar’ (Shafin Ahmed); ‘Jodi Himaloy Hoye’, ‘Hoyni Jabar Bela’ (Khalid); ‘Bangladesh’, ‘Maa’, ‘Guru’, 'Baba' (James); Eto Koshto Keno Bhalobashay (Hasan); ‘Mati Hobo Mati’, ‘Boka’ (Rumi from CloseUp 1) and more.